Good morning. Hear that? That's the sound of mathematicians scrambling to find another topic to tweet about besides dates that form palindromes. Today, 12/22/21, is the 22nd and final palindromic date of the year. There won't be another year with 22 palindromic dates until 2111. Fun fact: 1/20/21 was the first Inauguration Day with a palindromic date in American history. The next one will come in 1,000 years, on 1/20/3021. —Neal Freyman, Jamie Wilde, Max Knoblauch | | | |  | Nasdaq | 15,341.09 | | | | | S&P | 4,649.23 | | | | | Dow | 35,492.70 | | | | | 10-Year | 1.461% | | | | | Bitcoin | $49,003.78 | | | | | Boeing | $199.52 | | | | *Stock data as of market close, cryptocurrency data as of 5:00pm ET. Here's what these numbers mean. | - Markets: Down big one day, up big the next—that's the Omicron-era stock market for you. Stocks surged yesterday following a 3-day losing streak, with travel companies leading the way.
- Covid: The FDA is set to authorize Covid pills from Pfizer and Merck this week, Bloomberg reports. These treatments, which are intended to be taken by vulnerable people shortly after they are infected, could significantly reduce the burden on strained hospitals. Experts say the pills are a pandemic medical milestone second only to vaccines.
| | Drew Angerer/Getty Images In what's become a dreary tradition during this forever pandemic, the president of the United States gave a speech outlining new steps the country will take to combat another wave of the coronavirus, this one fueled by the highly contagious Omicron variant. The centerpiece of the plan is mailing out 500 million rapid Covid tests. Starting in January, Americans can log on to a new website set up by the White House, order tests, and get them shipped to their house for free. - These tests, experts say, can be useful ahead of holiday gatherings or to check on your status after being exposed to someone with the virus.
- A positive result from a Covid rapid test is pretty reliable; they reportedly show fewer than one false positive for every 1,000 tests taken.
This move marks the first time since the pandemic began that the US federal government will send out free rapid tests to Americans. That it hadn't done so already bewildered many public health leaders who view frequent at-home testing as a critical tool for slowing the spread. And even 500 million at-home tests is a fraction of what's needed for Americans to test themselves at the recommended twice-weekly rate. What else did Biden announce? - He's assembled 1,000 military personnel with medical skills who will be deployed to overburdened hospitals needing extra staff.
- The government will also open up new pop-up testing sites across the country and dispatch hundreds of people to put Covid shots in arms.
There was one thing missing from the speech… Anything resembling a "restriction" or a "lockdown"—and it shows how the US' fight against the pandemic has shifted over the past 20 months. With breakthrough cases among vaccinated people now common (as I can attest), the government is trying to use testing and booster shots as ways to spare people from severe illness, rather than shutting down social life. UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson is taking a similar approach, saying yesterday that no new Covid restrictions would be announced before Christmas. Bottom line: Biden's speech is a sign that, at least from the White House's perspective, the era of lockdowns in the US appears to be over and the era of "living with the virus" is beginning. However, as recent sports, restaurants, and theater closings show, Covid is still causing significant disruptions, government-mandated or not.—NF | | Seth Herald/Getty Images One of 2021's longest-running strikes came to an end on Tuesday, when 1,400 union workers at Kellogg factories in Michigan, Nebraska, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee approved a new 5-year contract. Workers at the four plants walked off the job 11 weeks ago, after their existing contract expired without a new one in place. The backstory: Amid soaring pandemic demand for Kellogg's products, workers said, they regularly logged 72- to 84-hour weeks (a claim Kellogg has disputed). Due to Kellogg's two-tiered benefits system, workers hired after 2015 typically earned lower wages than more veteran employees for similar work. The collective bargaining agreement reached Tuesday ended the two-tiered system and also includes: - A pledge of no plant closings through fall 2026
- A "clear path to regular full-time employment"
- Across-the-board wage increases and cost-of-living adjustments
Zoom out: The deal follows a bitter battle between striking workers and Kellogg management that included a Dec. 8 threat by the company to permanently replace all 1,400 workers with new employees. In response, users in the Antiwork subreddit mass-applied to the open positions, overwhelming the application portal. And President Biden was "deeply troubled" by the plan to replace the workers.—MK | | Dianna "Mick" McDougall; Getty Images US population growth hit a record low this year, crawling up 0.1% in the 12 months ending July 1, per the Census Bureau. The country added just 393,000 people on net, or about one Cleveland's worth. It's the first time since 1937 that the US population grew by less than 1 million people. This is an extreme instance of what has been a long-running trend. For years, US population growth has been slowing due to 1) a declining birth rate as would-be parents delay or put off having babies 2) lower immigration levels to the US and 3) higher mortality rates due to an aging population. What made last year so "extreme," of course, is the Covid pandemic, which has only amplified the three headwinds just described. Zoom out: The US population's anemic growth will result in fewer Americans to fill jobs and to pay the taxes that keep programs like Social Security financially healthy. Countries like Japan, where the population has been shrinking since 2007, have already been forced to confront these issues.—JW | | TOGETHER WITH THE MOTLEY FOOL | | To quote an iconic onscreen prep school teacher, "gather ye rosebuds while ye may." Here's a rosebud you'd be glad you gathered: Netflix stock, when The Motley Fool recommended it at $1.85/share—now up 33,637%. Or consider a bookselling rosebud named after a river—Amazon is up 22,913% since The Motley Fool sent a "buy alert" at $15.31 per share. While Netflix and Amazon have pretty much been seized, The Motley Fool has five other diems you can carpe—growth stocks under $49 per share. You don't want to look back in a few years, wishing you'd gathered these buds with so much potential to blossom. And for a limited time, The Motley Fool is offering their "5 Growth Stocks Under $49" for free. That's right—five growth stocks, no charge. Gratis. On the house. Get The Motley Fool's five growth stocks under $49 for free right here. | | Maddie Malhotra/Getty Images Stat: As of yesterday, LeBron James has spent more than half his life in the NBA, 6,753 days post-draft to 6,752 days pre-draft. Quote: "We support the women who have come forward and shared their painful experiences." Sex and the City stars Sarah Jessica Parker, Cynthia Nixon, and Kristin Davis issued a joint statement in support of the two women who accused SATC actor Chris Noth of sexual assault. Noth has been dropped from his show The Equalizer, and Peloton pulled a recent ad that he was featured in. Noth has denied the allegations. Read: The world's first octopus farm—should it go ahead? (BBC) | | Nearly $100 billion intended for pandemic relief funds has been stolen since early 2020, the US Secret Service said yesterday. So, wait…you're saying some people got more than three checks? The agency dropped that bombshell when naming a National Pandemic Fraud Recovery Coordinator to ramp up the agency's investigations into Covid-related financial scams. Roy Dotson, the agent tapped as the coordinator, told CNBC that he's never seen fraud at this scale…and he's been working on fraud investigations for 20+ years. Big picture: Special agents in heist movies love to get stuck behind a big bus as the criminal escapes, and that's kind of where the real Secret Service finds itself currently. So far, the agency has seized more than $1.2 billion in illegally obtained relief funds and returned more than $2.3 billion in stolen funds. Officials have arrested more than 100 suspects, but 900 investigations into pandemic fraud are still active.—MK | | - OnlyFans founder Tim Stokely stepped down as CEO of the adult content-focused media company. He'll be replaced by spokesperson Ami Gan.
- Misbehaving airline passengers could lose their TSA PreCheck privileges, the FAA said.
- The Turkish lira had another roller-coaster day after President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced measures to protect savers during the country's currency crisis.
- The Big Three auction houses—Christie's, Sotheby's, and Phillips—collectively brought in a record $15 billion in sales this year.
| | | Stress-free IT. When AllTrails turned to Electric for IT support, it meant they could focus on raising their $150 million funding round. Why? Because Electric offers lightning-fast, chat-based support and proactive security standardization—freeing up AllTrails to pursue game-changing growth strategies. If that helps you relax, there's more: if you're a qualified decision maker at a company of 15-500 people, and take a meeting with Electric, they'll give you the best massager on the market. Learn more here. | | Plan ahead: This Marketer's Calendar contains all the important dates you need to know for 2022. It's going to be our bible for prepping content next year, and it can be all yours, too. A roundup of roundups: This website did the dirty work of gathering all of the "2021 in review" and "2022 trends previews" in one place. Check it out. More ambient noise generators: Because you can never have enough of these bookmarked. Here's one with many different options and another with some cool presets. | | Word Search: This puzzle's title, "Celebrity Christmas Ornaments," says all you need to know. Play it here. Nutritional Facts Can you identify the popular food product from the following ingredient list? Salt, Onion*, Modified Food Starch, Sugar, Garlic*, Spices, Maltodextrin, Buttermilk, Dextrose, Less than 2% of: Natural & Artificial Flavors, Lactic Acid, Calcium Lactate, Guar Gum, Disodium, Inosinate & Guanylate, Calcium Stearate. *Dried | | Upgrade your morning with the Founder's Journal podcast and get smarter, faster for free. Start with some of the latest episodes. This editorial content is supported by American Express. | | | Hidden Valley's original ranch dressing. Yum. | | | Written by Neal Freyman, Jamie Wilde, and Max Knoblauch Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up here. WANT MORE BREW? Industry news, with a sense of humor → - Emerging Tech Brew: AI, crypto, space, autonomous vehicles, and more
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